[PENHALLOW] A REVIEW OF CANADIAN BOTANY 7 



are in an excellent state of preservation, and well represent our local 

 flora. According to a catalogue prepared by Dr. Barnston, who suc- 

 ceeded Dr. Papineau as professor of botany in McGill University in 1857, 

 there are in all about 520 species of spermatophytes and pteridophytes. 

 An inspection of this catalogue reveals many features of great histoiùcal 

 interest, disclosing as it does, very striking changes not only in the flora 

 of Montreal but in the growth of the city as well, together with the 

 complete obliteration of localities which must have been remarkable for 

 their vegetation. 



Among those of whom there is but scant record, but whose unassum- 

 ing work is deserving of notice, is the name of Titus Smith, of Halifax. 

 From accessible accounts, it would seem that when a small boy, Smith 

 displayed a taste for languages, and an intellectual capacity far beyond 

 his years. The presentation of the works of Linnt^us to his father by 

 Governor John Wentworth, seems to have been the probable source of 

 his taste for botanical science, which, from all accounts of him, he ap- 

 pears to have cultivated to some purpose. Mr. Smith enjoyed a very 

 high local reputation, and although he was engaged in much work of a 

 scientific nature, his very retiring disposition seems to have prevented 

 him from publishing in the scientific journals of the day. Such contri- 

 butions from his pen as were published always appeared without any 

 signature in local papers. In 1801 he was instructed by the governor of 

 the province to make a tour of the forest lands of Nova Scotia, and to 

 prepare a report on the soil, situation of the lands, the species, quality 

 and size of the timber, and also to make remarks on such objects of 

 natural history as he considered of sufficient importance. The journal of 

 this survey is preserved among the archives of Nova Scotia, and forms a 

 thick folio volume. It contains a vast amount of information, particu- 

 larly relating to the botany of the districts examined. The manuscript 

 journal of another part of Smith's tour of the province, is jjreserved in 

 the form of a well filled note book among the books bequeathed to the 

 Nova Scotia Historical Society by the late Dr. T. B. Akins, and so far a& 

 at present known, none of this material has ever been published. 



For a period of about forty years, or until about 1812, Mr. Smith's 

 time was chiefly spent in making surveys of various parts of the pro- 

 vince, so that he came to acquire a remarkably accurate knowledge of 

 the natural history of the country, and for this he was noted. That hi& 

 botanical knowledge was scientific and accurate, would seem to be im- 

 plied by the fact that among his correspondents he counted Dr. Graham^ 

 of Edinburgh, F. André Michaux, J. C. Leredon, and others who were 

 authorities in their day. And yet it is a singular fact that his name has 

 been completely forgotten. It does not appear in any of the usual lists, 

 and nowhere have I met with it in the descriptive works bearing on the 

 flora of this continent. Hooker makes no mention of him in his Flora 



